


maybe there’s a universe where i’m the right person

by mcmeekin



Category: Power Rangers in Space
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-01 23:06:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16774741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcmeekin/pseuds/mcmeekin
Summary: Karone chases after a ball and returns to find that she doesn’t have a brother.(little tiny look at a karone-andros life swap and all the maybes that universe entails)





	maybe there’s a universe where i’m the right person

**Author's Note:**

> i literally wrote this like. four years ago. that's a whole life time. i wrote it on new years eve, and i sent it to pearl, and she's been BULLYING ME to post it since then. i've been hesitant since it's a weird...style for me? idk. enjoy four-years-ago!me's writing

We’ve all done it before, but we’ve never done it like this: what if Darkonda got Andros and left Karone behind?

Karone chases after a ball and returns to find that she doesn’t have a brother.

Let’s imagine a world where Karone of KO-35 dedicates her life to finding her brother, and Andros dedicates his life to destroying her.

Karone would become red ranger, wouldn’t she? A red ranger with a flashy silver to become her best friend and constantly annoy the hell out of her. Or maybe she’s not red, maybe she’s pink or yellow or blue. Maybe one of those morphers was always meant for Karone, and she defends KO-35 as it falls under a different color. Maybe she is blue, and she lets TJ keep his red when she finds them.

Or maybe TJ’s still blue, and Karone leads them in red. She’s quiet and awkward and doesn’t understand Earth culture, but she’s still Karone. Still smiles a little more than Andros would. Still more playful than Andros would be (maybe she melted under the influence of a certain silver ranger more than Andros did).

She doesn’t push them away when she first finds them. She understands their need to protect Earth by finding Zordon, understands the need to protect family and a planet and to have left a teammate behind.

Because of course Zhane is still lying in a coma in the Megaship somewhere. But maybe she tells them, maybe she shows them to let them know that she understands.

Maybe she still falls for Zhane, and their picnics go less terribly in this timeline. Or maybe Andros and Zhane were the childhood friends that we all suppose them to be, and Zhane is still too half in love with her brother to see anything other than him when he looks at her. So maybe she follows unwittingly in her brother’s footsteps and falls for the ditzy blond who’s surprised that she’s human. And they go on not-as-awkward-as-anticipated dates to see Halley’s comet and buy matching jackets. Maybe she doesn’t fall in love until tracking the Psycho Rangers leads her to a distant space colony, and she meets the rangers that defend it.

Maybe none of that happens. Maybe she falls for Cassie or TJ or Carlos or her next door neighbor on KO-35. Maybe she falls for no one at all.

But what about Andros? How does he fair, with Ecliptor as a surrogate father? Does he rise to the top of the ranks and get picked by Dark Spectre the same way that Astronema did? Well, for our story to progress, he must. He’s more subdued, though. Not as flashy. More dark and threatening, brooding and malicious than Astronema could have gotten away with. He would learn to survive in a different way than Astronema did, but it boils down to the same thing.

You have to wonder if he would follow in Astronema’s footsteps and fall for a ranger. Maybe it’s Ashley or maybe it’s Zhane. Maybe they’re endeared by his intensity and awkwardness. Maybe it works out between him and the ranger in a way that it never worked out between Astronema and Zhane.

Maybe Karone knows but chooses to let it go on.

She would stay on KO-35, this Karone. When the battle was won and Andros was her brother again, she would stay on KO-35 and send the rangers back to Earth. They would visit each other, of course, but it wouldn’t be the same. Her home would be split across universes.

And who would be there to protect that pink Quasar Saber a year later? Who would slide into Kendrix’s spot so easily, so simply, without ever replacing her? Karone certainly wouldn’t. She has no persona to hide behind and acquire the saber. Besides, she’s a red ranger. Pink wouldn’t fit her. Maybe Cassie or even Ashley steps up. Or maybe there is no Galaxy Pink, not anymore. Maybe the Lost Galaxy team fails.

But this isn’t a story about Lost Galaxy. It’s a story about a little girl who was never Astronema, never the princess of darkness, never the queen of evil.

No, Karone was never Astronema in this little universe. She carries Andros’s weight, and Andros carries hers. He has to live with the planets he’s conquered, and she has to live with the planet she couldn’t save. Her nightmares play out differently; her regrets come from blood she couldn’t stop from being spilled, not blood she spilled herself.

Her hair is longer, and maybe she smiles more genuinely than our Karone ever could. Maybe that twisted smile that looks so like Astronema never flashes across her face. Maybe she’s happier. Maybe she’s better.

But maybe she’s not.

Is it better that this Karone will never know the Lost Galaxy team? Her team? At least, not in the way our Karone does. Is it better that Andros will never know his team? Never befriend them in the same way our Andros did? Never know TJ, Carlos, Cassie, Ashley? Never have Zhane’s back without question? He will be an outsider, and maybe Karone will be too. Maybe she’s not friends with them in the same way.

Maybe nothing turns out quite right, quite good enough. Maybe everything’s twisted in an irreparable way.

But she’s still a ranger in every timeline, once and always, for better or for worse. She still feels the authority simmering in her veins, still understands the thrill of morphing, the power of piloting a zord. She still knows the weight of her actions, the shadow of her decisions, the echo of her mistakes. But the weight is less. The shadow is shorter. The echo doesn’t reverberate quite as long.

Karone chases after a ball and returns to find a life that’s a little bit better and a little bit worse.


End file.
